Ed Benedict , 1912-2006
Posted on May 09, 2008 in Ed pump
This looks like a caricature of Ed. So does the guy in Tex Avery's Field and Scream. It's amazing to me that a guy with such a crusty exterior can make drawings this cute! Well I have some really sad news today. Ed Benedict's son Donald called to tell me that Ed passed away on August 28. He was 94. Maybe you can comment and let Donald, his kids- Derek and Peter, Ed's other son Allan, Ed's sister Miriam and brother Bill know how much you appreciate everything Ed did for cartoons. Ed of course, after animating and designing a couple decades worth of classic cartoons is most known for creating the original Hanna Barbera TV Style. Ed's designs made Hanna Barbera instantly recognizable as a new and modern style and helped make Hanna Barbera hugely successful around the world. These frame grabs are from the original 1960 season of the Flintstones. Ed did all the character and background layouts. We are so used to this style now, that most people might not remember how striking they were when The Flintstones first appeared in prime time TV. By the way, these background paintings are great, aren't they? I think they are painted by Art Lozzi. I wish I knew more about the guy. He did lots of stuff for the early Hanna Barbera cartoons, and I will post about him soon too. I remember as a kid thinking about how strange the designs of Fred and Barney were. They were futuristic even though they were cavemen. Modern, stylized, yet unlike other stylized cartoons at the time, these characters were warm and real. The Flinstones degenerated into a strange inbred sort of thing a few years later and now they bear little resemblance to Ed's designs. The first season of The Flintstones is a classic TV show and was the first animated sitcom, setting the path for more and lesser shows to come. I have a million funny stories about Ed. I first met him in the mid 80's when Lynne Naylor, Bob Jaques and I went on a trek to northern California to meet him. He was a super curmudgeon who couldn't believe anyone even knew who he was, let alone loved his cartoons. We brought up tapes of his work for Tex Avery, his Hanna Barbera cartoons and he was completely disgusted by them! But then he demanded copies of them all so he could write me letters telling me everything that was wrong with them. Over the last couple decades I kept visiting him and rifling all his files of fantastic cartoon drawings he did for cartoons, commercials and comic strips. He also would show me lots of photos he took of the MGM studios in the 1950s. He would point to an animator and tell me all about him. "See that guy with the suave mustache? That's Ken Muse, a nice guy, a real slick operator. Couldn't draw worth a crap! Hanna loved him cause he could really 'pump out the footage'! But a good guy to go bowling with, one of the guys." (By the way the animation in this clip is by Ken Muse! Ken really watered down Ed's designs and poses-I remember recognizing his style as a kid and thinking of him as the 'bland animator'.) Ed had a great collection of Golden Books and magazine illustrations and we would pour over them and he'd give me all kinds of design theories. Every time we visited we would watch old cartoons. Ed loved UPA and Disney (he pronounced it "Dissney".) He didn't think anyone else did anything else worthwhile and we had some great arguments. He would sometimes put his fists up and threaten to beat some sense into me. He had a huge pointy tuft of grey hair sticking out of his chest and it would stand erect and fill with blood when he was in scrapping mode. It's funny, 'cause he would crab all weekend about everything and then when we'd leave he'd be all choked up, which would always kill us. He was the soft-hearted curmudgeon. I showed him a bunch of Clampett cartoons and he was amazed at how wild and inventive they were. "Damn ugly though!" He could still draw really well into his eighties and I got him to do many background layouts for Boo Boo Runs Wild and Day In The Life Of Ranger Smith. After we finished the cartoons and brought them up to show him, he stared at me for about five minutes getting madder and madder. He said, "Well there was some funny stuff and really inventive things in there, but why in Hell can't you draw on model?!" Ed and his wife Alice (who passed away a few years ago) used to watch Ren and Stimpy together and actually became big fans of it to my surprise and delight. Ed is one of the true giants of animation. I think he was the greatest character designer in the whole history of the medium. He was a wonderful guy to boot and always lots of fun to hang out with. I had an awful day yesterday after I got the news. I sure am gonna miss him. Flintstones_titles Uploaded by chuckchillout8 http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/04/design-3-ed-benedict-and-fred.html I have lots of interviews I did with him on tape. I need someone to transcribe them though. Anyone out there do that? Preferably in LA. generic cialis generic viagra online buy cheap cialis viagra
CYBILS: Five days left...
Posted on April 17, 2008 in Impotence young men
...to nominate your favorite Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction book published in 2007. I know some of you are busy polishing the silverware and preparing the nut cups for Thanksgiving next week, but please consider taking a break to give the nod to your favorite book. Some titles still awaiting nomination: The Voyage of the Beetle: A Journey around the World with Charles Darwin and the Search for the Solution to the Mystery of Mysteries, as Narrated by Rosie, an Articulate Beetle by Anne H. Weaver Einstein Adds a New Dimension (from The Story of Science series) by Joy Hakim; Psst, Rebecca! The geeky physics post can wait. Your nomination can't (unless of course there's another title you'd prefer to nominate). Carol, did you get it yet and read it? The Many Rides of Paul Revere by James Cross Giblin The Trailblazing Life of Daniel Boone and How Early Americans Took to the Road by Cheryl Harness The Remarkable Rough-Riding Life of Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Empire America by Cheryl Harness Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage? by Jean Fritz When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner The Dangerous Book for Boys (US edition) by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz The Art Book for Children / Book Two , compiled by Amanda Renshaw and the editors of Phaidon Press Amazing Ben Franklin Inventions You Can Build Yourself (from the Build It Yourself series) by Carmella Van Vleet Great Pioneer Projects You Can Build Yourself (from the Build It Yourself series) by Rachel Dickinson Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself (from the Build It Yourself series) by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer by Deborah Kogan Ray Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy, Crusader: A Twentieth-Century Life by Marc Aronson One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge; I know Chris Barton at Bartography thought highly of this one. And Karen, who knows a thing or two about good World War II books for children, calls it "fascinating". Of course, Mary at Our Domestic Church could nominate it too. Yoohoo.... River Roads West: America's First Highways by Peter and Connie Roop Tales of Famous Americans by Connie and Peter Roop Stories of the Zodiac (from the Dot to Dot in the Sky series) by Joan Marie Galat 600 Black Spots: A Pop-up Book for Children of All Ages by David A. Carter (I'm not 100 percent sure about the category for this one, but it's definitely fun for all ages) Labels: art, children's historical nonfiction, children's nonfiction, Cybils, science books Cheap Viagra Generic Viagra viagra buy cilais
Patent attorney Edington's daughter not molested
Posted on April 14, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction
Further to an earlier post on Fairfield, CT attorney Jonathon Edington, AP reports that Edington's 2-year-old daughter was NOT molested by a neighbor (Barry James) whom the girl's father is accused of stabbing to death in rage. Capt. Gary MacNamara: "We're confident this 2-year-old was not molested. We are confident in our investigation that Mr. Edington did in fact kill Mr. James. " ***Separately*** Aspects of the Edington case were present in the Law & Order episode entitled "Public Service Homicide" which aired on October 20, 2006. The analog of the victim Barry James in the Edington case was one Carl Mullaly, who was stabbed to death. Unlike in the Edington case, the victim on Law and Order had been exposed on a tv show "Hard Focus," which bore similarity to certain recent episodes of NBC's Dateline. In Law & Order, there was a neighbor (Evan Fleming) who had a daughter. The character Fleming was a doctor, rather than a patent lawyer. On Law & Order, the neighbor doctor was not the murderer. On Law & Order, there was also an organization ScumWatch. Curiously, the police on Law & Order conveyed lines not supportive of "Hard Focus": "train wreck tv" and "problem with your show inciting violence." As the episode of Law & Order progressed, it became apparent that "Hard Focus" had significant involvement in the murder. It turned out that the true murderer (Hannah Welch) had significant involvement with the producer of Hard Focus, Elle (L.A.?) Harper. Harper was working on a different show "Confront and Heal," and had identified Welch as one who had been raped by Mullaly. McCoy noted: The distinction between news and entertainment is not so clear. Planting pseudonews on the news without disclaimer is not proper [IPBiz: reminds one of the July 28 "news of the week" in Science; see 88 JPTOS 743]. An event where one of the participants is trained, paid, and armed by the producer is not journalism. It's not entertainment; it's murder. Harper was convicted of second degree murder. There was even an IP angle in the show. The lawyer for Hard Focus initially objected to turning over tapes to the prosecutor on the basis that they contained trade secrets. Law & Order also mentioned Krav Mega.